


Barefoot On the Moon

by justbygrace



Series: Stories I'll Never Write [5]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Angst, Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 10:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13121850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justbygrace/pseuds/justbygrace
Summary: You guys I LOVED this idea and I'm so sorry to abandon all hope, but it must be done. These four chapters are very near and dear to my heart and I hope you will enjoy them such as they are (and they are spaced pretty far apart in this story). From my heart to yours, I give you: Barefoot On the Moon.





	1. Chapter 1

The most important thing to remember about leaving the past behind is to never look back, no matter how tempting it might be. This was the motto that Rose Tyler lived by these days. Once long ago and far away she'd had a mother, a boyfriend, a job and then she gave it up to travel with a mad man in his box. She'd thought it was going to last forever, but it didn't because things so rarely do. She lost everything, not just the man and his box, but the family and the normal 21st Century Earth life also. 

There were only two noteworthy days from Rose's previous life that she took the time to observe no matter where or when she was. The first was the day she met the Doctor and the second was the day she lost him. To prevent herself from losing her mind over grief and guilt she forced herself to only remember these days on the actual dates (or as close to the dates as she was able to approximate - the 51st Century calendar did not always translate well). The rest of the time she pretended that her previous life had never existed and she fully embraced the backstory that had been created for her. Occasionally she felt that she was surviving in some sort of weird afterlife and that she had actually died all those years ago.

Rose was famous in the Agency for not taking a day off, she was never sick, never had a family emergency, volunteering to work holidays and take the grueling assignments no one else wanted, except for two days a year. Those were her days to mourn. She would hop over to another planet, sometimes to a different time, and spend the hours somewhere quiet and remote and remember.

\------

The day she met the Doctor was a day like any other, normal, boring, predictable. The sun came up, the birds sang, the traffic moved, Mickey flirted...and she felt trapped. Trapped by the endless monotony of this existence stretching before her forever. Breaking out was not an option, no one ever did and when she suggested the idea to her mother, her response was a chuckle and a pat on the head and a reminder that Mickey was a nice bloke. Yeah, he was a nice bloke...that was half the problem. She didn't want a nice bloke (she didn't particularly want a not nice bloke either, Jimmy Stone had taught her that lesson uncommonly well), she wanted interesting, different, unusual. That evening she had gotten all of that in spades. A man grabbed her hand in his calloused grip and told her to run.

She ran. Ran towards him, with him, to help him, straight into his wooden box with hardly a backwards glance. He took her to the end of the world where she watched her planet disintegrate and listened to him tell her how the same thing happened to his own planet and she began to understand. The two of them met Charles Dickens and battled smoke aliens and met a girl who sacrificed herself to save the world and she was inspired. When he brought her back home for a visit, he miscalculated and she arrived a whole year after she left and she began to know that he was fallible. He gave her a key to his home and told her he couldn't bear to lose her and she realized she couldn't lose him either. They met an ancient enemy and he became at first hardened and then he broke, holding her close, and begging her apology and she simply held him and knew he could not be on his own. In a fit of generosity she invited a boy to travel with them and he turned out to just be another self-absorbed know-it-all and the Doctor kicked him out and declared her to be the best and she rested in the knowledge of his forgiveness. They traveled to meet her father and she tried to save him, invoking paradoxes and an old evil, nearly losing the Doctor in the process. He accepted her apology with a hug, holding her to him with a desperation she understood.

Sometimes when Rose was particularly morose, she wondered what would have happened if that had not been their last adventure, if they had the opportunity to keep traveling together. Would they have eventually crossed the thin line between them? The signs were all there and she was certain he had wanted her as badly as she had wanted him. She remembered his hugs, strong arms pulling her close so that she could rest her cheek against his chest, those double heartbeats the sound of coming home, the feel of his lips in her hair and the contentment of knowing she was precisely where she belonged. 

The night before everything had changed was her favorite memory, the one she pulled out on only special occasions so that the edges remained crisp and clear. She could almost taste the tea and toast he had made for her, feel of the soft blanket that covered both of them, smell the distinct combination of leather and wool and time where she had her face resting on his shoulder. They had been watching a silly alien nature documentary and he had been pointing out all of the errors in it while she laughed at him, gently teasing him. She'd fallen asleep there, head cushioned on his chest, his arm holding her close, and she had been perfectly happy.

When she woke up, she was in a heap on the floor and a strange man was telling her to avoid the android. It was all downhill from there. A game where the loser was killed, almost finding the Doctor only to be shot at the last moment, waking up in the middle of a dalek fleet, being rescued by the Doctor, realizing there was no way they could stop the daleks in time, and then, then he had kissed her forehead, put her in the TARDIS, and sent her away. A digital recording of him started talking, something about "safer off" and "back home" and "don't worry" and then the TARDIS had started shaking, sending her about the room like a ragdoll, and it had landed with a crash. It had taken her several minutes to stagger to her feet and cross to the door. Flinging it open, she stared out at a world she had never seen before. Hovercrafts and smooth steel buildings the likes of which she'd only seen on sci-fi shows. A man in a long blue coat had strode over, "Hello, I'm Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Tyler, there's a guard at the end of the east corridor. If you cut through the middle office by the bathrooms you can avoid him completely. I can give you step-by-step directions."

Rose Tyler let out a breath, mentally cursing Donna for not telling her this vital bit of information before she'd spent fifteen minutes working her way to the opposite corner from the office Donna wanted her to use. Forcing herself to remember how many times Donna had saved her arse, she crouched down and began to slowly zigzag her way through the corridors, listening to Donna's voice in her ear. If she could just reach the stairs, she should have a clear path all the way to the roof. It would be the work of five minutes to set the bomb in place and then she could clear out, shouldn't even have to break a sweat if she was careful.

She had just pushed open the stair well door when Donna's voice took on a panicked note, "Uh-oh, trouble in Paradise. Tyler you've got fifteen minutes tops. Harkness what's your twenty?"

Rose groaned and took the stairs three at a time, suddenly glad for the intense trainings Jack insisted she go through on a regular basis. Not that field work couldn't keep her in shape, but this flat out running up ten flights of steps was a whole different brand of hell. She was halfway there when she finally heard Jack's voice crackle through her earpiece.

"Sorry sweetheart, my game's a bit off today."

Barely biting back a curse, Rose pounded up the next flight with renewed vigor. Jack's little message indicated he'd been shot, but not badly and had made it to safety. If she made it out of here alive she was giving him hell. His job should have been cut and dried, get in, flirt a bit with the tech room guys and convince them he was there on a routine maintenance check. Usually he could do that sort of thing in his sleep and she spared a brief thought to wondering what had gone wrong. She could already hear the sound of footsteps on the stairs below her and knew it was only a matter of time before she was dodging bullets.

By the time she slammed the door to the roof open, she was panting in earnest but she knew she didn't have the time to stop and breathe. She took off across the roof, skidding to a halt by the ventilation shaft, hand already digging in her pocket for the dispersal device. Ideally she needed three minutes to place it and make sure it was wired to go off, but she didn't have that kind of time. She had hardly set it into place, hurriedly typing in the code when she heard the door crash against the wall and the first shot whizzed past her left ear.

"Tyler! Get out of there, get out of there now!" Donna's voice sounded in her ear.

Rose ducked lower behind the ventilation shaft, hastily typing in the last string of numbers and hardly wincing as the whine of bullets came nearer. 

"Surrender human! We know what you are." The roar came from the closest member of the guard and Rose resisted the urge to roll her eyes. When would they get more creative? She hit the activation button the device and then quickly put in the coordinates for base on her vortex manipulator. The last thing she saw before the swirling sensation began was the leader of the guard bellowing his anger.

She landed with an inelegant thump and hardly had time to gain her bearings before Jack was charging towards her, throwing his arms around her and hugging her tight. "Next time you get out of there. Forget the damn mission. You make sure you're safe."

Rose winced and wiggled out of his arms, avoiding his gaze as she strode out of the landing area and headed for the lockers. "Don't give up, don't give in. You are the one who taught me that."

"And I meant it, but not when your life is on the line!" Jack exclaimed, matching pace with her angry strides.

"Well, it's done. And we won't have to worry about them again. So a little thanks wouldn't hurt here," Rose growled, swinging open the door to the lockers and barely avoiding smacking Jack in the face with it.

"I won't thank you for trying to get yourself killed. Seriously, there's a difference between reckless and taking calculated risks." Jack moved past her and blocked her way, folding his arms and fixing her with his best older brother glare.

"Stop it, Jack, that stopped working on me years back. And if you'd done your job, I wouldn't have had a herd of Faibians on my tail." She knew it was a low blow and immediately regretted it, eyes going to the bandage on his upper arm that she hadn't noticed up until this moment. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're not." Jack shoved his hand through his hair and sank down on a nearby bench, shoulders slumping. "You're not sorry about any of it. And that's what scares me."

"Adrenaline junkie, me." Rose turned away from him and moved towards her own locker, palming it open and retrieving her civilian clothes. Flipping on the shower, she hoped he would accept her answer and they could move on.

He didn't. "You're getting worse every day, every mission. And I'm not the only one who has noticed either."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rose stepped behind the curtain, tossing her clothes over it and relaxing slightly in the hot spray. 

"Rose, let me help you. What is going on?" Jack asked, his voice barely audible over the water rushing past her ears.

"I'm fine. I'm always fine. I'm just tired of dealing with the Faibians. Wanted a change of pace." Rose held her breath.

"Fine, you know what? Whatever. I'm going to check in. I'll talk to you later. Or not." 

She listened to the sound of his retreating footsteps and then sighed, resting her forehead against the wall and letting the hot water pound over her back, soothing away her aches. Desperately she wished it could do the same for the deeper aches, the ones which were so much more than skin deep. Jack was right, she was throwing herself into missions with an air of recklessness, taking unnecessary risks, and flirting with danger. On some level she knew it was because it was sinking in that this was it, this was her life now. There was no going back and there was really no going forwards. There was only this, missions and danger stretching on ad nauseum until the day when she was too slow or miscalculated and then it would finally all end. 

Jack was a good friend, the best sort of friend, her only real friend here, but if she were to admit any of this to him, he'd have her carted off to the doctor faster than she could say Time Agency. There was a lot of things that Jack understood, but the feeling of getting closed in by this life was not one of them. He loved it, thrived on it; he was the true adrenaline junkie and they both knew it. She was here because she had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do and because Jack had been in the right place at the right time. Or the wrong place at the wrong time the little voice in the back of her mind whispered and Rose viciously slammed the water off, desperate to shut the voice off as well. There was no use dwelling on the past, no one knew that better than she did.

Toweling herself off, Rose slipped into dark jeans and a vest top, topping it with a loose jumper and a leather jacket. No one else got the reference and she took a sick sense of pleasure out of that here in her own private version of hell. Sometimes, when she was feeling particularly morose, she wondered if she really had died that day and no one had bothered to let her know and this was just a weird sort of afterlife. Logically she knew that she was still living and breathing and functioning, but that was the extent of it, any deeper meaning to life had been lost to her ages ago.

She jogged down the corridor to the main control room eager to check in and, if she was very lucky, receive another assignment. Okay, so maybe she had a tiny bit of a death wish, but she dared anybody to be in her position and not have one. She paused just inside the door to control, allowing her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. The handlers liked their room dark, lit only by the hundreds of screens lining the walls and the desks. It was usually best not to question the handlers, they were the ones responsible for keeping the agents alive after all.

Donna spotted her immediately and waved her over. Rose smiled at the other handlers as she walked, she'd been there long enough to recognize most of them, but hadn't worked closely with anyone other than Donna. When she was close enough, Donna reached out and smacked her arm causing Rose to jump back and let out a startled noise.

"Oi! What was that for?" Rose was careful to keep her voice down.

"For being a damn action hero out there, that's what," Donna said. "Oh, come here you." She dragged Rose into a hug.

"Okay Donna, I'm safe now. You can let go." Rose awkwardly patted Donna's back while managing to extricate herself from her grip.

"His Highness is pretty royally pissed at you though," Donna said conversationally, settling back into her chair.

"I know." Rose sank into an empty chair and ran a hand down her face. "He worries too much."

"We're all a bit worried about you." Donna ostensibly typed a few words, but her gaze was directed at Rose.

"I can take care of myself." Rose tossed a pencil in the air and caught it. 

"I'm not doubting that," Donna said evenly. 

Rose waited for Donna to start her tirade and the silence stretched between them. At length she shifted in her chair and glanced over at Donna who seemed absorbed in something on her screen.

"Is that all you wanted to say then?"

"Hmmm?" Donna looked up as if startled that Rose was still there. "Oh yeah, I'm finished."

Rose gave Donna a strange look, Donna usually had quite a bit to say about just about everything and her silence was unnerving. Choosing not question it, she pushed herself to her feet, asking casually, "Anything come up that I can get started on tonight?"

Donna snorted. "I should think not. Oh, Hartman wants you in her office."

"She what?" Rose yelped.

"Wants you in her office," Donna repeated unperturbed and then glanced up. "It's not about how you're looking to get yourself killed every day, if that's what got you worried."

"Yeah, no, I mean, I'm fine. Not worried." Rose fiddled with the lapels of her jacket and gave Donna a strained smile. "I'll just go then."

Donna gave her another smile and went back to typing. Rose shook her head and headed out of the control room to the main offices on the upper level. She hated going up there and rarely had a chance to do so. In fact, she'd only been to Yvonne Hartman's office once before, the day Jack had recruited her. She wondered why Hartman had even bothered with her. Back then she'd been a scared nineteen and a half year old, with dried tear tracks and a torn jacket. Now she was twenty-five, give or take a year or two, with a record that made the other Agents respect her even if they didn't like her, and a reputation for kicking arse and taking names even amongst the darker planets.

Quickly drying the moisture off her palms onto her jeans, Rose knocked lightly on the frosted glass door to Hartman's office. She answered the muffled "come in," pushing the door open and entering the office with a smile pasted in place. Hartman was reclined in a large chair behind the glass desk and a man that Rose did not recognize occupied one of the seats facing the desk.

"Tyler." Hartman nodded at her. "Have a seat."

Rose dropped into the smooth seat, enjoying the way it almost seemed like plush leather, even though that sort of thing hadn't been used in centuries. The other man turned out to be mostly humanoid, only his flat noise giving away his planet of origin as Kastorfia, one of Rose's least favorite given their level of police brutality and a certain fruity drink that had made her violently ill on her last visit. 

"Tyler, this is Plato North," Hartman began. "North, Agent Tyler."

Rose inclined her head, hiding her amusement that he shared his name with an old Earth philosopher. "Pleasure to meet you sir."

"Likewise, I'm sure." His nasally tone was a surprise and Rose turned a laugh into a discreet cough.

"I called you up here today, Tyler, to inform you that we have reassigned Jack Harkness." Hartman's tone was even as if she was discussing the weather.

Rose's amusement swiftly fled and she stared at Hartman in shock. "You've done what?"

"Reassigned Jack Harkness," Hartman repeated as if she was explaining herself to a very small child. "There's a mission that we need him for. Highly classified, I'm sure you understand."

"I do not understand." Rose knew she was allowing her anger to bleed through her tone, but couldn't manage to control it. "Harkness and I have been partners for years. We routinely close more cases than any other team. What possible reason do you have for taking him away?"

"Not one that I am required to explain to you." Hartman leveled a cold stare at her. "It is a tribute to your record that I am even informing you of this decision."

Rose sank back in her seat in disbelief. She knew that Hartman was routinely referred to by nicknames unrepeatable in polite conversation, but she had never expected something like this. "Why send just him then? Why not send both of us?"

"Oh, your ego has taken a blow, has it?" Hartman smiled nastily. "Well sorry about that sweetheart, this is the Time Agency, not nursery school. If you can't handle it, get out now."

Rose stood up, pushing the chair back so that it tipped over. "If you just called me up here to insult me, I think I'll leave now." She spun on her heel and headed for the doorway.

"Might I remind you that as much as your little temper is a fine display, you're playing a more dangerous game than you know." Hartman's voice arrested her when she was halfway across the room.

Rose clenched her hands, turning and fixing Hartman with a cold stare. "Meaning?"

"Meaning we've got our eye on you and one step out of line and you end up on your ass on some backwoods planet with no way off. And your friend Jack's mission gets that much more dangerous." Hartman leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, the very picture of calm.

Forcing herself to take a deep breath, Rose spoke again. "I'll keep that in mind. Was there anything else, ma'am?" She put as much emphasis as she could on the last word, enjoying the little wince of irritation that crossed Hartman's face.

"No, that will be all." 

Rose nodded and spun, leaving the office swiftly. She could feel the new insults sink down within her, reaching down to where her old anger smoldered and igniting it. She'd learned well and she focused on turning the heat down, transferring it from a fiery rage to a cold fury. The coldness would last longer, give her clarity, and allow her to play this to the very end. So deep in thought was she that when she ran in someone coming out of the lift, she hardly noticed. She caught a brief glimpse of tan trench coat and flyaway hair before shrugging it off and hitting the button that would take her back to her locker. Maybe if she hurried she could catch Jack before they shipped him off.

She had just exited on the ground level when she felt her pocket vibrate. Hitting the button to activate her earpiece, she spoke eagerly. "Jack!"

"Sorry, it's Donna. He's already gone, Rose. They got to him twenty minutes ago." It was Donna's voice.

Rose swore loudly, a string of words that sent some nearby techs scurrying away from her. 

"Take some time Rose, I'll send Beta team out on the dangerous ones," Donna said softly.

"No," Rose growled. She was not about to let Hartman see her break. "I'll be ready first thing in the morning."

She slammed her hand down to disconnect the call and then quickly hit the coordinates on her vortex manipulator to send her home. Home was a tiny flat, hardly big enough to accommodate her bed and a dresser with a postage stamp sized bathroom. Meals she ate when and if she could and she was hardly at the place anyway, missions could keep her away for days on end. 

Kicking off her boots and shedding her top layer of clothes, Rose flopped down on the mattress and allowed her mind to wander. Back to before everything went wrong in her life. Back when she was Rose Tyler, shop girl, daughter, and girlfriend and then when she was Rose Tyler, plus one to the Doctor. She didn't often dwell on the past, but she felt that after a day like today she deserved it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Major Time Jump with some obvious discrepancies.

It's the first time she's had a chance to sleep through the night in god only knows how long so of course that's when her phone startles her awake at 2:17 am with a song she loves during normal hours and right now abhors with every ounce of her being. 

"'Lo?" She knows she's slurring her words and doesn't care. 

"Rose? Is that you?" The familiar voice takes her breath away and chases every vestige of sleep from her mind.

"Jack?" She's sitting up and reaching for her shoes blindly before she can think it through.

"Rose, can you meet me? Something's wrong." His voice is shaking and that scares her more than anything else.

"Yeah, course. Where?" She is already mostly dressed and pauses to hear his response.

"The bar. On Hexiva 12? The one we went to after..." His voice trails off.

"Ten minutes, Jack. Hold on." She hangs up and does an automatic check for weapons and credentials. The last time she saw the inside of this place was two weeks ago and she has an idea it might be longer until the next time. 

She deliberately refuses to think about the last two years or why he's calling now or anything else at all, really, just clears her mind like she's been trained and focuses on what she needs to do next. It crosses her mind to check in with her operator, but quickly discards the idea, no need to raise alarms before there is a true need. She taps in the coordinates on her vortex manipulator and sucks in a quick breath, this may be the hundredth, the thousandth time she's traveled like this, but it doesn't make it any more fun. When she opens her eyes and the swirling sensations have passed, she is pleased to see that she has landed on the exact spot she was aiming for, that was a hard won ability and one that Jack always teased her about. Her grin fades at the thought and she shakes her head, striding purposefully down the alley and towards the side entrance of The Old Lantern, her favorite pub in three galaxies, mostly because of its policies of hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil, something that has served her well over the years. 

She spots Jack the moment she opens the door, he's folded himself into the back corner booth, the one they claimed as their especial booth back in the day. Taking a moment to signal her order to the bartender, she makes her way over to the booth and sinks down opposite. The smile he gives her is a mere ghost of his old one and she fights down panic. 

"It's 5165, isn't it." It's not quite a question and not at all how she expected him to open the conversation. 

"All year long." She makes an attempt at levity that falls startlingly flat. 

"Rose...they..." He breaks off when their drinks appear, levitated towards them by the long-tentacles of the bartender. They both smile their thanks and take a moment to down a long swallow, her of something light and frothy, him of something darker and more potent than she has ever seen him order.

"Jack, what happened to you?" She can't put this off any longer, she needs answers and she needs them now.

He finishes his glass in one long swallow and sets it down a little too forcefully. "How long's it been? Since Axion?"

"Two years. Almost exactly. Why?" The panic is threatening to choke her and she forces herself to breathe deeply.

"Because I can't remember them," he says it rapidly as if that will make the saying easier. 

"What?" She can't help the breathless quality of her voice.

"I mean, I can't remember anything since we checked in. You said we'd earned a break and you were going to find a place to stay and then...I woke up in my apartment about an hour ago." His voice cracks slightly and he half turns away from her.

She leans back in her seat, staring at the side of his face. Words are pounding through her head, but not in sentences or paragraphs or anything near sense. If it wasn't for the tremors in his arms and the fear she can see behind his eyes, and she has never, not in all the years she has known Captain Jack Harkness seen fear in his eyes, she isn't sure she would believe his story. She opens and shuts her mouth several times before finally forcing words out. "What do you think happened?"

"I don't know, Rose. I don't know." He's flirting with hysterics and she knows she ought to calm him, but can't quite find the will to do so. "I know something happened, I know that time passed, but I don't know any specifics."

"How do you know time passed? Thought you said you didn't remember." Her tone is harsher than she means it to be, the words tinged with accusation.

"I'm a highly-trained Time Agent, I know when someone has messed with my head." His smile is more of a grimace.

"You think someone from the Agency did this to you?" She can't help the disbelief in her tone. They might employ some more...questionable methods from time to time, but no way could anyone she know be responsible for this.

"Erasing two years of memories? That's first year stuff for us. You know that." He holds up a hand to stave off her protests. "I'm not accusing anybody, but I just lost two years of my life and I don't know what they had me do. What mission was so awful that they couldn't let me remember it?" His voice falters at the end and she sees his façade crumble a little more. 

"Jack." She reaches across the table and grabs his hand and he holds it gratefully, some of the tension slipping from his shoulders. "We'll figure this out, okay? We always do."

"Yeah, okay," he says and then his eyes open wide with horror. "Did I contact you at all since Axion?"

"Ahh, no." She withdraws her hand and it's her turn to look away from him. "I didn't know what happened. They just said you'd been sent on a classified mission." The waves of hurt come crashing back and she struggles to keep from drowning in them.

"I'm so sorry Rose. I would have contacted you if I could. You know that, right?" He sounds genuinely upset. 

"Yeah, I know." She injects her voice with as much cheer as she can. "Partners forever, yeah?" As soon as the words leave her mouth, her smile falters. Ahh, yes. She'd forgotten.

"You've gotten a new partner then?" Years of dangerous missions have taught them to read each other's micro-expressions and she curses it silently.

"It has been two years. Can't have solo agents running around." She attempts a smile. 

"Yeah. He...she...they any good?"

"He's good, yeah. Bit different. Goes by the name of John Smith, strange bloke really. Talks a lot, but doesn't say much." She shrugs a little, not really wanting to discuss him. "He's got nothing on you though." 

He chuckles and the sound is broken, like its been ages since he's had the opportunity to laugh. "Hard to compete with this."

This is so achingly familiar it hurts and she fights back the tears. "It's good to see you Jack, really. And, we're gonna figure this out. Together."

It's his turn to reach across the table and grab her hand. "I missed you. I mean, I can't remember anything, but there is a hole and I know it's where my memories should be. And you're missing from it." 

The words ease a tiny bit of the hurt and she gives him a genuine smile. "Missed you too, it's not the same without you." They've never been anything but the best of friends, though not for a lack of interest on his part, then again, she'd never met anyone that Jack wasn't interested in. 

"Does he know about...?" Jack trails off and waves his hand vaguely, years of not talking about their condition is ingrained deeply.

"Course not. There hasn't been an opportunity to bring it up." 

"No life or death situations then? Rose Tyler, are you one of those agents now?" He sits back and folds his arm, looking scandalized.

She laughs because this is them and she never thought that there would be a them again. "Not planning on being a desk agent for a good while yet, thank you very much. I'm just...more careful now is all."

"I'll have to see that to believe it." He signals the bartender for another round. "Think they'll make us partners again?"

"I dunno." She traces a pattern through the condensation on the table. "Maybe if we're lucky."

"Yeah." 

He doesn't say anything else and she takes a moment to collect her thoughts and emotions, compartmentalizing them neatly. She's missed her partner and her best friend more than she's had the chance to express and there was never really a chance to mourn his absence; the Time Agency isn't huge on processing time and she's given up trying to emotionally process things anway. But having him back, sitting here across from her, she knows things are different, she's different. She's had to take lead on missions, the senior agent in the field, and she's not the bright-eyed young thing she once was, content to follow in the legendary Captain's footsteps. Suddenly she isn't entirely sure she wants to be partnered with him anymore. Her play of emotions must show on her face because he clears his throat suddenly.

"Fancy a game?" He gestures towards the dart board on the wall.

"Yeah, sure." 

She follows him across the room, eyes scanning the other patrons automatically. They play with the ease of familiarity and she forces herself to relax and enjoy their banter, after all it wasn't that long ago that she didn't think she'd ever get this chance again. By the time she realizes just how late, or how early, it really is, she is nearly completely relaxed. 

"Check-in together?" he asks, eyes hopeful.

"Together." 

He offers his arm and she takes it, watching him enter the coordinates for headquarters. There will be time enough to talk about changes and differences and where they go from here, for now it is enough to go through this routine with him again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> POV Shift

It was Tuesday. Well, at least he assumed it was Tuesday. It could have been Tuesday. It probably was Tuesday somewhere. No one here really paid attention to such arbitrary time constraints as "days" or "months." But he'd always had a weakness for humans (even the ones not technically from the Original Earth) and keeping track of the days and weeks and months was still a part of him. And there was always the chance that he...well, no use dwelling on all that. Not while he was John Smith, playing a role, pretending to be someone he wasn't, or maybe pretending not to be something he was. Semantics. Right now he was supposed to have been at work about ten minutes ago. Work! Him! A job! Wonders never ceased. Well, they probably did cease, but he had yet to find it. In fact, he was of the opinion that if he ever ceased to wonder it would be time for him to retire. Retire, now that was an interesting...

"Oi! Spaceman!" His stream of thought was interrupted by strident tones and he grimaced.

John turned to face the intrusion with what he hoped was a dazzling smile. "Donna! It is so good to see you this fine Tuesday."

She was giving him a glare that could keep the coolers on Halkum 5 going for eons to come. "You're late." 

"Well, I guess, if you want to be technical about it..." He ran a hand through his hair and attempted another smile.

"Save it. We've got enough trouble without your bloody excuses." Donna swept past him into the central hub of Headquarters with all the bearings of the queen herself, or a queen, if the world even knew what queens were anymore, which most of them did not. Hardly even touched on it in the history books anymore really, shame that.

He shook himself out of his musings and trailed behind Donna. The instant he passed over the threshold he could tell something was different. He scanned the room interestedly. At first glance everything seemed normal, business as usual. Adam Mitchell, that pretty boy, was leaning against the wall drinking, well, probably not coffee, but the closest equivalent. Martha Jones was leaning over someone who had an arrow, an actual arrow, protruding from their arm. Astrid Peth was chattering excitedly into her wrist. Donna was hollering at someone to get their skinny arse over here...oh, that was probably directed at him. He redoubled his pace and arrived at the far side of the hub only to pull up short at the sight of Harriet Jones, head of the Agency, talking animatedly to a gentleman with a flowing blue coat who had...Rose Tyler hanging off his arm. Ahh. His stomach twisted unpleasantly and he shifted around to focus on Donna.

"So, what's the hurry this morning then," he asked brightly.

"The hurry is that you're late," Donna said tartly, folding her arms and continuing her never-ending glare at him.

"John," Harriet cut in and he swung back to face her. "I want you to meet Captain Jack Harkness. Newly returned to us."

So that was the infamous Captain Jack then, was it? No wonder the timelines rippled unpleasantly around him. He nodded politely to the other man and was startled when he was pulled into a hug, a hug that lasted way past the demands of propriety. He was finally let go when someone, he suspected Donna, let out an impatient cough. 

"Now if you're quite done molesting people Jack." That was Donna. "We've got some things to sort out."

Harriet Jones was the head of the Time Agency, top dog, big cheese, but John often felt that no one had ever bothered to mention this to Donna. 

"What things?" he wondered aloud.

"I need to know how we're partnering people up." Harriet took control of the conversation. "Frankly I don't care as long as everything proceeds smoothly. Rose and Jack have worked together for a long time." She paused and then amended. "Had." There was another uncomfortable silence before she hurried on. "But I don't really want to unleash you John on anyone else. Rose seems to keep a pretty good handle on you."

Jack rather unsuccessfully attempted to turn a snicker into a cough and earned a dark look from both Donna and Harriet. John shifted his weight and studiously avoided looking at Rose. He assumed that she'd want to go back to being partnered with Jack. They had worked together for longer, much longer than he had been bumbling around here. They probably had, oh what was it? Oh yes, rapport. He thought that he and Rose had rapport too, well, maybe not rapport exactly. More like, well, at least she had avoided attempting to kill him before now, which was more than could be said for most people who tried to work with him. He tuned back into the flow of words around him in time to hear Rose speaking.

"...be fine. Anyone would want to work with Jack and vice versa." 

John blinked and turned his head to look at her for the first time. "What?"

She rolled her eyes which was probably a valid response and repeated herself, "Said I'd stay with you."

"Oh." John studied the tips of his shoes and tried not to look as pleased as he felt. He hadn't honestly thought she'd agree to stay with him. Not after the way she always went on about Captain Jack this and Captain Jack that all the blood time. Could give a man a complex, probably had come to that.

"So Jack, who do you want to be partnered with then? You're got seniority here, you can have your pick," Harriet said.

Donna groaned loudly and turned back to her desk. "Alright you two. First mission of the day. New Earth. Specifically the hospital. They're having an unusually high success rate recently and we need to know why."


End file.
